Transcripts of video:

Hi.  I’m Dr. Christopher Mote and today I want to talk to you about stress.  Stress is an
age-old problem, but with all of the research that’s been devoted to it we have a changed,
a deeper understanding of stress and how it affects health.

One of the ways that we look at stress now with that new understanding is that the
emphasis is really not on the adrenal gland and its output, but rather on the entire
Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis or HPA Axis.  When we use the term HPA Axis
Dysfunction instead of, say, adrenal fatigue it allows us to start the discussion where we
feel it’s most important, which is at the very beginning of the process and that’s the
induction of stress, the stressors themselves that bring about the activation of the HPA
Axis and cause the ripples throughout the body and our health.  So instead of a patient
who gets their test results back and looks at a high or low cortisol output and then looks
for the right supplement in order to fix that situation, talking about HPA Axis
Dysfunction allows us to have a discussion about what’s driving their stress and we can
have a meaningful discussion about their mental and emotional stress as it relates to their
jobs, their finances, or their relationships.

We can keep that discussion about the stress that’s impacting the HPA Axis and bring up
their glycemic habits that lead to low blood sugar events and stimulate that HPA Axis. 
We can talk about inflammation, often coming from the GI tract that chronically
stimulates the HPA Axis, and then we can talk about how the HPA Axis never gets a
break in somebody who doesn’t properly sleep.

We feel like that terminology really affords us the ability to have a good and meaningful
discussion with both practitioners and patients.